Canon EF 85mm f1.2L II USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras - Fixed

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Its been couple of months since I got it and I love this lens, it is STUNNING at F1.2 but you have to know how to use this lens and I mean having patience for the right moment. People, this isnt a sports lens that can focus on a fly so dont expect focus to be your top criteria, but if you are into portraits this is the best what Canon has in the EF lineup. This lens takes breathing taking images out of any camera body even those old 8 mega pixel DSLR. I use this lens for Film as well and the colors are strikingly alive and the DOF is out of this world. Some cons are: Chromatic aberration, its a mean one but can be corrected in post.

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This lens produces the most beautiful portrait quality outside medium and large format photography I have seen. It is bright, clean, crisp and vibrant wide open, and the beautiful creamy shallow depth of field (sorry, not a fan of the word "bokeh", LOL) at 1.2 is poetry to my eyes. Unlike many other people, the weight does not bother me. I hand held it the other day for 5 hours with no problems whatsoever. Also, I have heard many complaints about chromatic aberration with this lens, but from my experience with this particular lens it is actually axial color (longitudinal chromatic aberration) which occurs when the subject is just slightly out of focus in certain lighting conditions. I notice it shooting a "wide" scene directly lit by sun at 1.2, especially on a slightly out of focus pattern such as a striped black and white tie. I see no cons with this lens outside of expense.

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85mm - F1.2 - need I say more? If your serious about buying this lens chances are you read reviews from lens review sites so I will tough on what most of them talk about. Focus speed is slow for a lens in this price range but for portraits and pre-focusing to about where the image will be shot it is not a problem at all. This is not for sports, works great for weddings or dimly lit areas. Pros: images come out super creamy, super dreamy.

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Id give ten stars if I could. This lens is the holy grail for portrait photography. The sharpness of the images are immaculate. Best purchase ever! Im in love with it.

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This is not a beginner lens. In fact, even experienced shooters will take some time to get used to this lens. But if you know what youre doing, it can produce some amazing shots. The key feature of this lens is of course its very wide aperture creating a very narrow DoF. Which means your focus needs to be spot on. I found that this is one of those lenses where your results are best if you shoot with a single, selected focus point. Its also one of the lenses where the 1DM3/1DsM3 microadjustments for focus may be worth undertaking. The challenge with this lens is the slow AF, because its front focusing. It wont track a moving person very well. Its also a heavy lens - even though its a prime lens, it weighs more than most zooms. But chances are if youre considering this lens, you also have one of the bigger and heavier full frame bodies. As such if you hope to use this lens as a everyday multi-purpose lens you will be disappointed. But if you use it for a narrow range: portraits or other objects which dont move much, and benefit from a very narrow DoF, this is a fabolous lens.

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Ive had this lens for 6 months and now it is the lens that is most often on my camera. The creamy smooth background blur this lens achieves is stunning. I was amazed at how big a difference I get with bokeh from this 1.2 lens versus a 2.8L lens. I use this lens on a T2i and the results are incredible. I mostly use this lens for portraits, but I have also had amazing images of products. My best images from this lens are when I am taking portraits outside during the "Golden Hour." I do love that with this lens, the background doesnt matter because when you focus on your subject, everything else magically disappears in the background. Backgrounds become nothing but creamy bokeh when you shoot with this lens wide open. When the lens arrived, I was shocked at the massive size and weight, but when I consider the 1.2 aperture and all the glass, it makes sense that its so big.

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Ive had a few weeks to play with this lens and while I am thouroughly impressed with the way it manages backgrounds and the how it resolves fine details, I am dissappointed with one thing reviews here have not typically mentioned, knocking off one star. First the positives! 1) Incredible bokeh at wide apertures: I am simply amazed at the background blur created wide open to f2.8. Its been argued, why shoot at 1.8 or 2.8 when other lenses can do that at a fraction of the price? Its the WAY this lens renders out-of-focus elements at wide apertures that sets it apart. 2) AF accuracy: I use a 5D classic, and at inifinity and minimum focussing distances, there is 0 front focussing or back focussing issues at f1.2. Im able to achieve this accuracy in low contrast, indoor lighting, which is key for a fast lens. Without micro adjust on my SLR, focussing issues are non-negotiable when it comes to lenses that find a home in my bag. 3) Resolution: Extremely fine detail is captured at 1.2. Stopping down is only required for additional depth of field. 4) Manual focus: The consensus is the fly-by-wire method of focussing isnt great. Granted, Im no fan of how loose the focussing ring turns, but I have no problems manually focussing. In practice, it feels no different manually focussing than any other lens I own, and Im pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy doing so with this lens. At an aperture of 1.2, great care needs to be taken for accurate focussing at any distance. I happen to use a high precision, manual focussing screen (Ee-S) to aid this process, something I dont believe I could do with the stock focussing screen with any confidence. 5) Focussing speed seems to come up a lot for this lens. Does seem sluggish compared to my 70-200 2.8 II, but shooting fast action or sports is not the intention with this lens. Rather, Id been using my 100mm L for portraits almost exclusively. Its more than capable of keeping up in portrait sessions with active children and family pets. My only dissappointment with this lens: 1) LOCA abberation - short for Longitudinal Chromatic Aberration. Ultra fast lenses typically exhibit LOCA in some form at wide apertures, and this lens is no stranger to this. "Bokeh fringing" for this lens is most apparent in highlights and is especially noticable as a green tint for bokeh in the background and a magenta tint for bokeh in the foreground. I was surprised to see how much of this abberation showed up in actual, real use images (not talking test charts here). While all fast lenses deal with LOCA, I cant help but feel Canon could have done a much better job controlling this. Unlike the typical chromatic abberation that can be easily corrected, LOCA is difficult or sometimes impossible to correct in post because of the color shift that occurs in highlights, out-of-focus elements, etc. 2) Im nitpicking now! I dont like the lens hood at all. It feels very cheap, and clasps onto the lens using these small clips, requiring you to press on 2 hard-to-grasp tabs at the base of the hood. It all feels very cumbersome for a lens hood that feels unusually wide for a short-tele. In conclusion, I adore this lens. For what it does, nothing else in my kit can quite replicate its efforts. Im more than happy to make room for this tool in my kit. Its unfortunate however, that in pursuit of speed, incredible resolving power, and undeniable background control, excessive LOCA abberation seems to be the unfortunate compromise. No free lunch it seems!

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Most amazing lens I have ever owned. Its a little heavy but I like that. This lens is a beast. My images are so sharp now. Im very pleased with my purchase!

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Incredible lens. I’ve only had it for a few hours and I’ve already gotten some seriously good photos.

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Anyone who says "f/1.2 is too shallow for portraits" just doesnt have the skill to use it... Anyone who says "5x the price of the f/1.8 for basically the same picture" is jealous they cant afford it. Anyone who says "focuses too slow for sports"... Well ok yes that one I agree with. But if you buy this lens you should NOT be buying it for sports and high speed shooting, this is a portrait lens and the best one on the market at that. The focus speed is definitelly the slowest of all my L lenses, but when you shoot portraits your not focusing all the way from infinity to close up... your range of focus is very small and for this purpose it is more than fast enough. The bokeh this produces can only be described as magical, it transforms the background and makes it look like a dream world while subjects are in as crisp of focus as my 70-200 f/2.8L II IS. Colors are vivid and accurate, contrast is phenominal... and did I mention the bokeh?? WOW!!! PROS: - Bokeh - Extremely sharp even at f/1.2. According to FoCal f/1.2 is as sharp as the 70-200 f/2.8L IS II at f/2.8. - Colors and contrast CONS: - Im not going to put focus speed here because you should not be buying this for sports - Rear element is flush with the mount so you have to be very careful when changing lenses - You have to have the camera on to manual focus, because the manual focus relies on the AF motor, not a big deal but Im struggling to find another con - *** Edit 12/18/2013 *** One more con, Chromatic aberration is pretty bad at times. I shoot weddings, and it shows up a lot on the edge of brides dresses. Most software today has lens corrections available to fix this. But, many times doing this adversaly affects the image too (lips can sometimes have the same color, so half of the lip becomes grey which looks very odd) Overall a great lens, expensive as all hell but you do get what you pay for.

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